I had a love-hate relationship with my little brother, Phillip, when we were young. No one could push my buttons like Phillip, yet we had many fun times together, too. One night at the cabin, I had a nightmare about Phillip that I have never forgot.
It had been a stormy evening and night. Thunderstorms at the cabin could be really frightening! Lightening would flash, then thunder would follow with a boom that sometimes seemed to shake the walls. Rain would poor down on the cabin in sheets, and the wind would howl through the pine trees, sounding like a train whooshing past.
This particular night had been really frightening, and I had a hard time falling asleep, then slept uneasily. Suddenly I was dreaming that Phillip was hiking by himself over the hills past the Bar-X Ranch, a couple of miles from the cabin. He had Duke, our doberman pincher, with him; only in the dream Duke looked like Lassie from a TV show we liked to watch.
It wasn’t stormy in my dream, but after walking through a big meadow Phillip and Duke came to a barbed wire fence, and suddenly the air filled with thunder. Phillip tried to cross the fence, but it had become electrified from the lightening, and Duke got caught on the wires. In my dream Phillip struggled to get Duke loose, lightening struck the ground all around him, and thunder boomed.
I jerked awake, my heart was pounding, gasping as if I had just run a race. The cabin was pitch black, and I was too frightened to get out of bed and walk into the bedroom to find Mom. I just lay in our double bed, next to Linda who was sleeping soundly, shivering. The dream had been so real, the lightening so bright, the thunder so loud, that I couldn't get it out of my head. It seemed like I lay there forever, shaking and frightened, until I finally fell back to sleep.
The next morning I immediately remembered the dream, and was so glad it had not been real. Phillip was already awake, out on the back porch stringing his fishing pole with new line to get ready for the day. I could hear his voice talking to Dad, just the same as ever, and it was so comforting to know he was OK. Just the same, once I was up doing my own thing, Phillip began teasing and being annoying, and I forgot to be glad he was there. Life goes on, I guess. But I have never forgotten the vivid reality of that dream, or the sickening anxiety I felt as I watched my little brother struggling against that electric fence.
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